High protein curd composition

ABSTRACT

Shown here is a process for preparing a concentrated liquid composition (such as a broth) from poultry or other meat sources without the use of any enzymes. The resultant composition may have high content of solids but are pumpable or pourable and have relatively long shelf life at room temperature. Also shown are methods of extracting proteins from raw poultry or other meat sources at relatively low temperatures. Methods of making a high protein curd is also shown.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/850,405, filed Sep. 10, 2015 now U.S. Pat. No. 10,349,669, whichclaims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/048,648,filed Sep. 10, 2014, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference into this application.

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention

This disclosure relates to a process for making a broth composition.More particularly, the disclosure relates to a pumpable compositionprepared from poultry or other meat sources without using an enzyme.

2. Description of Related Art

Broth or soups prepared from animals have high nutrition values. Theyare rich in proteins and have been shown to possess both nutritional andtherapeutic values.

Many existing methods for making concentrated broth fail to efficientlyutilized the broth derived from the meat processing industry. Forinstance, some methods fail to produce a concentrated stock or broththat is pumpable or pourable. Broth that is not pumpable or pourable isdifficult to process. Poor utilization of the broth not only causeseconomical waste but also generates excessive waste water andenvironmental pollutions.

SUMMARY

The instrumentalities disclosed herein overcome the problems outlinedabove by providing a pumpable broth composition having high percentageof solids and relatively long shelf life. In another embodiment, thedisclosure also provides a cold raw extraction prepared from variousmeat sources. In another embodiment, the present disclosure alsoprovides a protein curd composition prepared from various meat sources.

In one embodiment, the higher solids of the disclosed concentrated brothcomposition may help control microbial growth and prevent spoilage ofthe broth products. In another embodiment, no non-poultry ingredientother than water is introduced into the composition. In anotherembodiment, no extraneous enzymes are added to the composition or usedin the process of making the product.

In one embodiment, a process is disclosed for making a broth compositionthat is pumpable or pourable. In another embodiment, the brothcomposition may be in a concentrated form, with at least 50%, 60%, 70%,80%, or 90% solids.

In another embodiment, a raw extraction process is disclosed which mayinclude at least the following steps: (a) mixing one or more poultry oranimal parts with water, (b) incubating the mixture of (a) at atemperature between −20° C. and 70° C. for at least 10 minutes togenerate a suspension, (c) separating the suspension from step (b) intoa liquid fraction and a solid fraction, and (d) collecting the liquidfraction from step (c) to obtain the extract.

In one aspect, the temperature for step (a) may be between −10° C. and40° C., between 0° C. and 25° C., or between 5° C. and 15° C. In anotheraspect, the incubation time of step (a) may be at least 5 minutes, 10minutes, or at least 30 minutes. In another aspect, the incubation ofstep (a) may be accompanied by stirring, mixing, etc. The poultry oranimal part may be selected from the group consisting of mechanicallyseparated poultry (MSP), mechanically separated chicken (MSC), poultrytrims, animal meat trims, ground poultry parts, ground animal parts andcombination thereof. In another aspect, the ratio between the poultry oranimal part and water in the extraction is between about 1:1 to 1:4 byweight. The raw poultry or animal meat extract obtained according tothis process may be subject to further processing described below, suchas concentration, cooking, membrane separation, among others.

In another aspect, the separation step (c) may be performed bycentrifugation, or filtration of the suspension. In another aspect, thecentrifugation may be conducted at a speed of 1,000 rpm, 2,000 rpm,3,000 rpm, 4,000 rpm. In another aspect, the centrifugation may beconducted at a speed lower than 10,000 rpm.

In another embodiment, a process is disclosed which may include at leastthe following steps: (a) incubating a raw liquid material at atemperature between about 50° C. and 160° C. for a period of at least 30minutes to generate a suspension containing liquid and solid components,(b) separating the liquid component of the suspension from the solidcomponent of the suspension, and (c) collecting the liquid componentfrom step (b). In one aspect, the raw liquid material may be incubatedin step (a) at a temperature ranging from 50° C. to 160° C., or morespecifically, at least 60° C., 70° C., 80° C., or 90° C., or over 100°with corresponding pressure and the period of incubation may be at least0.5 hour, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, or at least 24 hours. Theraw liquid material may be at least one member selected from the groupconsisting of poultry sarcoplasm, blood from poultry or other animals,raw poultry or animal meat extract as described above, animalsarcoplasm, and combination thereof. As used herein, the term “animal”may include all mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

In another embodiment, the composition prepared from raw extraction ofpoultry contains relatively low levels of hydroxyproline. By way ofexample, the levels of hydroxyproline as a percentage of total aminoacids in the composition may be as low as 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.2% or less,0.1% or less, 0.01% or less.

In one aspect, the liquid component from step (c) may be subject to aconcentration step (d), where the liquid component is boiled or issubject to a evaporation process to reduce the volume. The concentrationstep may help prepare a concentrated broth composition that containshigh solids, for example, at greater than 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% solids. Inanother aspect, such composition may be stable at room temperature forat least 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, 60 months, orlonger. In another aspect, the composition obtained from step (d) mayhave less than 0.85, 0.75, 0.7, 0.6 or 0.5 water activity.

The raw liquid material may be derived from chicken, turkey, beef, porkor other animal or poultry sources. In one embodiment, the raw liquidmaterial may be in a substantially liquid form which containssignificant amount of poultry sarcoplasm. The term “substantially liquidform” means that the raw liquid material is mostly liquid but maycontain minor amount of insoluble material. For instance, the raw liquidmaterial may be collected from a poultry processing plant or from apoultry storage container or package. In another embodiment, one type ofthe raw liquid material typically exudes from cut and exposed muscle orbone tissues, which is also known as muscle serum or myogen. In anotherembodiment, the raw liquid material may appear reddish because it maycontain intercellular, and/or intracellular liquid, sarcoplasm, and/orsarcoplasmic reticulum with its muscle pigment myoglobin, proteins,minerals, and metabolites. In another embodiment, the raw liquidmaterial may be blood or plasma obtained from poultry or other animals.

In another embodiment, the raw liquid material may be obtained byextracting raw mechanically separated poultry (MSP), mechanicallyseparated chicken (MSC), or finely ground poultry pieces (such aspoultry trims or ground poultry parts) with water. By way of example,the extraction may be conducted by adding water into raw MSC. Themixture can then be stirred to facilitate mixing and extracting. Theratio between the MSC and water in the extraction mixture may range fromabout 4:1 to about 1:20 by weight, from about 1:1 to about 1:4 byweight, or about 1:2 by weight. In another embodiment, the MSC and watermixture may be subject to centrifugation at the end of the extraction.The liquid phase resulting from the centrifugation may be collected andused as the raw liquid material for preparing the pumpable brothcomposition of the present disclosure.

The raw liquid material may be prepared on-site and may be used formaking the composition right after it is made fresh on-site.Alternatively, the raw liquid material may be from packaged products ormay be collected off-site.

After the incubation of step (a) where the raw liquid material isincubated at an elevated temperature, the suspension may be subject tofiltration to separate the liquid component from the solid component ofthe suspension, for example, by pouring through a 200 mesh sieve. Inanother aspect, fat may be further removed from the liquid component.For instance, the liquid phase may be cooled down or refrigerated toallow the fat to form a fat layer on top of the liquid phase. The topfat layer may then be removed by scooping or by other decanting methodsknown in the art.

In another embodiment, the raw liquid material may be cooked at anelevated temperature, e.g., 50-160° C. for a period of time such that aninsoluble protein curd is formed. In one aspect, this insoluble proteincurd may be separated from the liquid component and may be used invarious food products. For example, the protein curd may be used as asource of protein, or in a snack. In another aspect, the protein curdmay be used as is, or may be processed into powder.

In another embodiment, the liquid component obtained in step (c) may besubject to a concentration step (d). In one aspect, concentration may beaccomplished by boiling. In another aspect, the concentrating step maybe accomplished by evaporation. In another aspect, liquid componentobtained in step (c) may be subject to membrane separation to furtherremove certain undesirable proteins, peptides, compounds, or lipids, orto enrich certain desirable proteins, peptides, compounds, or lipids. Inanother aspect, membrane separation may help enrich one or more peptidesor proteins in the extract.

In another embodiment, the disclosed composition obtained from step (d)has relatively low water activity. By way of example, the water activityof the final product may be less than 0.85, or even less than 0.8, 0.7,or 0.6. In one aspect, salt may added to the composition to furtherreduce the water activity. The salt may be added to the compositionprior to step (d), during step (d), or after performance of step (d).Examples of salt may include but are not limited to NaCl, or otheredible salts. For example, about 5 percent of salt may be added to aproduct that is 40% solids to achieve about 0.83 water activity.

Reduced water activity in the final broth product may help reducemicrobial growth during storage and transportation. As a result, noanti-microbial agents or preservatives need to be added into the brothduring or at the end of the process. Because anti-microbial agents andpreservatives may be perceived negatively by consumers, avoidance ofthese substances may add to the marketability of the broth products. Inone embodiment, nitrogen or other inert gases may be used duringpackaging to modify the head space in order to prevent growth of mold orbacteria.

The reduction of water activity may also simplify the packaging processof the final product. More specifically, because the broth compositionobtained from step (d) contains little water to support microbialgrowth, sterile conditions may not be required when packaging thecomposition of the instant disclosure. In another aspect, the shelf lifeof the final broth composition obtained in step (d) may be at least 6months, at least 12 months, at least 24 months, or at least 36 months atroom temperature. By way of example, the shelf life of the final brothcomposition may be 12-24 months, 12-36 months, 24-36 months, or 36-48months at room temperature.

In another embodiment, the composition prepared according to the instantdisclosure has relative higher amount of Guanosine-5′-Monophosphate andInosine-5′-Monophosphate. In one aspect, the total amount ofGuanosine-5′-Monophosphate and Inosine-5′-Monophosphate is at least 25%of the total nucleotides in the composition. In another aspect, morethan 70%, or even 80% of total proteins in the composition have amolecular weight (MW) below 30 kiloDalton (KD).

In another embodiment, the composition prepared according to the instantdisclosure is pumpable or pourable, which is advantageous for packagingand handling. For instance, the broth may contain at least 50%, 60%,70%, 80%, or 85% solids but is still pourable (or pumpable) at roomtemperature.

In one embodiment, the disclosed composition may be packed in asqueezable or pumpable bottle and may be used by consumers at home or atany public places, such as restaurants. In another embodiment, thedisclosed composition may be packed in a container, such as a bulkcontainer, a trailer tanker, or a railroad tanker for transportation. Inone aspect, the container may have a headspace, and the air in theheadspace may be replaced with a gas having reduced oxygen content toprevent growth of molds. Suitable gases may include but are not limitedto nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or inert gas.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the protein profile of the Myogen broth prepared accordingto a disclosed method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates to cold raw extraction prepared fromvarious meat sources. The present disclosure also relates to pumpablecompositions prepared from various meat sources. The present disclosurealso relates to protein curd compositions prepared from various meatsources. In one aspect, the disclosed broth product is pumpable,flowable and pourable. In another aspect, the disclosed pumpablecomposition has higher solids than many other products preparedaccording to existing methods Another advantage afforded by the instantmethods is the relatively longer shelf life of the resulting brothproduct.

In one embodiment, one or more enzymes may be added in the rawextraction process. In one aspect, the enzyme may include, for example,proteases. In another aspect, the temperature of the raw extraction maybe at about 50-60 C. Both the addition of enzymes and elevation oftemperature may help increase the amount of essential amino acids thatare included in the extracted fractions.

In another embodiment, the raw extraction process may further include anacidification step (f) to reduce the pH of the soluble proteincomposition obtained from step (e). In another embodiment, theacidification step (f) may include adding an acidic agent to the brothlayer obtained from step (e) or partially hydrolyzing the broth layer,wherein the acidic agent is selected from the group consisting ofcarbonated water, carbon dioxide gas, and combination thereof. In oneaspect, acid hydrolysis may help removing fat (lipid) from thecomposition. In another aspect, acid hydrolysis may facilitate selectivefractionation of proteins and improve amino acid profiles, especially toincrease the content of essential amino acids

The terms “poultry part” and “animal part” refer to parts of the bird oranimal, as well as whole bird or whole animal.

The term “broth” refers to an aqueous composition containing at leastone solute. A broth may be a liquid, a solution, or a suspension. Forpurpose of this disclosure, the term “broth” may be used interchangeablywith the terms “stock,” “extract,” “fond,” or “demi-glace.” It is to berecognized that as a broth becomes more and more concentrated, it maybecome highly viscous and may have much lower liquidity as compared to adilute broth. The concentrated broth composition of the presentdisclosure may be a highly concentrated broth in a liquid form.Alternatively, a concentrated broth composition may be a dried orsemi-dried broth product in the form of powder or paste.

For purpose of this application, the terms “pumpable” and “pourable” maybe used interchangeably to refer to the fluidic characteristics of acomposition which can be transferred by using a device (e.g., a pump)typically used in the food (e.g., broth) packaging industry or which canbe poured from one container into another.

The term “water activity” refers to unbound water in a material, forexample, food. Water that is not bound to food molecules can support thegrowth of bacteria yeast or molds (fungi). Thus, water activity may beused to indicate the inherent tendency by which certain food materialmay become contaminated or spoiled.

The range of water activity may extend from 0 (bone dry) to 1.0 (purewater). Most food products have a water activity level in the range of0.2 for very dry foods to 0.99 for moist fresh foods. In practice, wateractivity is usually measured as equilibrium relative humidity (ERH). Thewater activity of fresh meat is typically about 0.99, while the wateractivity of aged cheddar cheese is about 0.85. Dried food usually haslower water activity. For instance, most dried fruit products have wateractivity of about 0.6, while dry milk powder has water activity of about0.2.

The terms “agent,” “ingredient,” “component,” and “constituent” may beused interchangeably in this disclosure. The term “enrich” means toincrease the concentration of a component in a mixture that containsmore than one components.

The compositions of the present disclosure may contain additionalingredients. It is to be understood that these additional ingredientsmay confer upon the disclosed compositions certain desirable properties.Examples of such desirable properties may include but are not limited toenhanced inhibition of spoilage microorganisms, improved flavor, orincreased stability of the composition, and so on.

It is to be noted that, as used in this disclosure, the singular forms“a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearlydictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a composition”includes reference to two or more of such compositions.

In another embodiment, the disclosed compositions may be prepared and/ordistributed in a concentrated form. A concentrate may be dissolved ordispersed in a solvent to form a reconstituted solution.

EXAMPLES

The following examples are provided to illustrate the present invention,but are not intended to be limiting. The reagents, materials andinstruments are presented as typical components, and varioussubstitutions or modifications may be made in view of the foregoingdisclosure by one of skills in the art without departing from theprinciple and spirit of the present invention.

Example 1 Preparation of Pumpable Broth from Raw Liquid Sarcoplasm

Raw liquid was collected in a poultry manufacturing plant from totes ofraw chicken frames. This liquid has been identified as primarily liquidsarcoplasm that exudes from cut and exposed muscle tissue, and is alsoknown as muscle serum or myogen. This reddish liquid is a natural partof muscle tissue and is often seen in grocery store packages of raw meatand poultry. When fully cooked, the red color disappears and the producttakes on the appearance of broth.

A quantity of this raw liquid was collected and weighed into a largestock pot. It was fully cooked at a simmer for about an hour at 85-99°C., and the resultant liquid broth was separated from insoluble solidsthrough a 230 mesh sieve. This broth portion was concentrated by boilingdown (reducing) on stove top for several hours to yield an extract withhigh solids. Upon reaching 57% solids, a sample was taken and the wateractivity of the sample was determined to be at 0.79. The remainder ofthe extract was further concentrated to 73% solids with a water activityof 0.59. Both samples had less than 0.85 in water activity and wereconsidered shelf stable. Both samples were very flowable and pumpableupon cooling.

Example 2 Preparation of Pumpable Broth from Raw Mechanically SeparatedChicken

Freshly made raw mechanically separated chicken (MSC) was obtained froma poultry plant. Portions of the MSC were weighed into cooking pots andtwo parts cold water was added into the MSC. Each batch was mixed enoughto break up lumps. Then, the raw slurry was centrifuged at 3,500 rpm for5 minutes and separated into a bottom meaty, insoluble phase, a largeliquid phase in the middle, and a thin fat layer on top. The liquidphase and the fat layer were separated from the meaty phase by pouring.The liquid phase and fat layer were then cooked on stove top at 85-99°C. for about an hour. After cooking, the liquid broth obtained wasseparated from insoluble solids by pouring through a 230 mesh sieve. Fatwas removed by cooling overnight in a refrigerator and simply scoopingoff the solidified fat. The broth was concentrated by boiling down(reducing) on stove top.

This concentrated broth was sampled and shown to have 57.4% solids witha water activity of 0.77. This sample remains very flowable, pourable,and pumpable at ambient temperature.

The procedure above was repeated and similar results were obtained. Anextract was obtained that was shown to be 48.8% solids with a wateractivity of 0.83, which is considered shelf stable with no need ofrefrigeration.

Example 3 Chemical Analysis of the Composition

The composition prepared according to Example 1 (referred to as MyogenBroth) was subject to chemical analysis to determine the content ofnucleotides and amino acids. A chicken broth prepared by conventionalmethod (referred to as Home-style Broth) was used as control. The amountof total nucleotides in the Myogen Broth after corrected on solid basiswas 3855.66 mg/100 grams By contrast, the amount of total nucleotides inthe Home-style Broth after corrected on solid basis was 2461.08 mg/100grams. These results indicated that the total nucleotides in the MyogenBroth is about 56% (or at least 50%) greater than the total nucleotidesin Home-style Broth. The amounts of each nucleotide as a percentage oftotal nucleotides for Myogen Broth and Home-style Broth are shown inTable 1, respectively. The amounts of each amino acid as a percentage oftotal amino acids for Myogen Broth are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 1 NUCLEOTIDE CONTENT Percentage of total Nucleotides % MyogenBroth Home-style Broth Adenosine-5′-Monophosphate 2.0 9.2Cytidine-5′-Monophosphate 1.7 3.3 Uridine-5′-Monophosphate 70.5 64.3Guanosine-5′-Monophosphate 0.88 1.2 Inosine-5′-Monophosphate 24.8 21.9

TABLE 2 AMINO ACID CONTENT Amino acid Percentage of total amino acids %Aspartic acid 0.77 Threonine 0.45 Serine 0.47 Glutamic acid 2.68 Glycine1.25 Alanine 1.01 Valine 0.49 Methionine 0.25 Isoleucine 0.39 Leucine0.67 Tyrosine 0.31 Phenylalanine 5.04 Lysine 0.85 Histidine 1.15Arginine 0.61 Proline 0.89 Hydroxyproline 0.20 Cysteine 0.11 Tryptophan0.10

The same Myogen broth was also subject to SDS-PAGE analysis to determinethe molecular weight distribution of proteins in the composition. Asshown in FIG. 1, more than about 70%, or 80% of the total proteins havea MW below 30 KD.

Example 4 Preparation of a High-Protein, Low-Ash Solid Composition

To prepare a solid high-protein, low-ash composition, in Test 1, about10 pounds of raw mechanically separated chicken (MSC) was extracted withabout 20 pounds of solution of water and chicken broth. The raw liquidfraction was separated from the more solid fraction using a centrifuge.Fat was mostly removed from the decanted liquid. The liquid was thenfully cooked to about 80° C. for at least 10 minutes. Upon cooking, aninsoluble protein curd formed in the liquid which was separated from theliquid with a screen. The curd was pressed in the screen by hand toremove excess liquid. The resultant protein curd was analyzed. Theresults are shown below in Table 3. The resultant curd was high inmoisture (72.2%) and proportionally high in protein (19.2%) and low inash (0.77%). Calculated to a dry or solids basis, the product had about61% protein, 36% fat, and 2.5% ash.

TABLE 3 ANALYSIS RESULT OF HIGH PROTEIN CURD OBTAINED IN TEST 1 MoistureProtein Fat Ash Dry: Protein Fat Ash 72.2 19.2 11.1 0.77 61.8 35.7 2.48

In Test 2, 10 pounds of raw MSC (6° C.) was mixed with 20 pounds of icewater. Solids were separated from liquid using a centrifuge resulting in19 pounds of liquid. The separated liquid was cooked with stirring togreater than 80° C. for more than 10 minutes, resulting in a clearchicken broth fraction and formation of an insoluble protein curd. Thecurd was separated from the liquid broth using a standard No. 230 sievewith hand pressing, then analyzed in the lab. Table 4 shows the resultsof the analysis.

TABLE 4 ANALYSIS RESULT OF HIGH PROTEIN CURD OBTAINED IN TEST 2 MoistureProtein Fat Ash Dry: Protein Fat Ash 68.7 19.0 9.8 0.6 64.6 33.4 2.0

The amino acid content of the protein curd is shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5 AMINO ACID CONTENT Amino acid Percentage of total amino acids %Aspartic acid 10.22 Threonine 4.54 Serine 4.31 Glutamic acid 12.58Glycine 4.57 Alanine 5.89 Valine 6.11 Methionine 2.40 Isoleucine 4.82Leucine 8.86 Tyrosine 3.59 Phenylalanine 5.52 Lysine 8.03 Histidine 3.53Arginine 6.46 Proline 5.62 Hydroxyproline 0.01 Cysteine 1.42 Tryptophan1.53

To test the nutritional values of the protein curd, a quantity of theprotein curd prepared according to Test 2 above was fed to rats alongwith control animal protein diet, and the growth of the rats wasmonitored and compared to rats fed with other animal protein products.The weight gain and growth of the test group was very close to thecontrol group fed with standard animal protein products.

Example 5 Preparation of Beef Curd from Beef Materials

Two beef raw materials were processed by the cold raw extraction methodas described in the above examples. These raw materials contain similarcomponents of raw liquid with some fat and raw insoluble meaty solids.The raw liquid extract phase was fully cooked at >85° C. for more than10 minutes. The protein curd formed after cooking was separated from thebroth phase by screening. The curd was pressed by hand on a fine screento reduce moisture, then analyzed for protein and fat. Samples were alsosent to a commercial lab for amino acid analyses.

The first raw material was from a Commercial Finely Textured Reduced FatBeef product, and the resultant protein curd had 15.8% protein and 6.2%fat (on a dry basis 71.8% protein and 28.2% fat).

The second raw material was from standard ground beef purchased in alocal supermarket. The protein curd prepared from this sample had 13.4%protein and 3.7% fat (on a dry basis 78.4% protein and 21.6% fat).

Both curd samples on a dry basis score a perfect 100 on PDCAAS score.Table 6 shows PDCAAS of beef protein curd made from raw extraction ofthe first sample. Values entered are the amino acid test resultsconverted to a solids basis. The PDCAAS is 100 based on egg white orcasein standard.

TABLE 6 AMINO ACID CONTENT OF BEEF CURD PREPARED FROM RAW BEEF PRODUCTAmino acid Percentage of total amino acids % Aspartic acid 10.2Threonine 4.3 Serine 4.1 Glutamic acid 12.0 Glycine 4.9 Alanine 5.9Valine 5.3 Methionine 2.6 Isoleucine 4.3 Leucine 9.5 Tyrosine 3.3Phenylalanine 4.9 Lysine 11.0 Histidine 4.3 Arginine 5.4 Proline 5.0Hydroxyproline 0.1 Cysteine 1.4 Tryptophan 1.5

The beef protein curd samples had a mild flavor and an amorphous, softtexture and had a mottled (light and dark) appearance. Proteindigestibility as measured by the standard pepsin digestibility methodwas at 98.8%.

Changes may be made in the disclosed compositions and methods withoutdeparting from the scope hereof. It should thus be noted that the mattercontained in the above description should be interpreted as illustrativeand not in a limiting sense. The following claims are intended to coverall generic and specific features described herein, as well as allstatements of the scope of the present methods and compositions, which,as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

The contents of all cited references (including literature references,patents, patent applications, and websites) that may be cited throughoutthis application are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in theirentirety for any purpose, as are the references cited therein.

We claim:
 1. A composition prepared from poultry or other animal sourcesthrough a process comprising: (a) mixing said poultry or other animalparts with water, (b) incubating the mixture of (a) at a temperaturebetween −20° C. and 70° C. for at least 10 minutes to generate asuspension, (c) separating said suspension into a liquid fraction and asolid fraction, (d) cooking said liquid fraction from step (c) at atemperature between 50-160 C for a period of time until an insolubleprotein curd is formed, and (e) collecting said insoluble protein curdto obtain said composition, wherein no extraneous enzyme is added in theprocess, said composition comprising more than 50% protein on a solidbasis, and said composition comprising less than 2% (w/w) hydroxyprolineas a percentage of total amino acids in said composition, and whereinmore than 70% of total proteins in said composition have a molecularweight (MW) below 30 kiloDalton (KD).
 2. The composition of claim 1,wherein said composition contain about 2.5% or less ash content ascalculated on a dry basis.
 3. A method of using the composition of claim1, wherein said composition is made into a snack.
 4. The composition ofclaim 1, wherein the composition is prepared from a poultry source. 5.The composition of claim 1, wherein the composition is prepared from abeef source.